McComas, W (2007)Biology Education under the Microscope. The Science teacher. 28-33.
Biology Education under the Microscope
This article by William McComas examines the history and current state of biology education. He begins his article by the following statement “Biology is the most important science subject taught in school!” This statement is actually supported by educational statistics, which show that between the years 1982-2000, the percentage of high school graduates taking biology for a science was the highest, 91.2%. Therefore, biology is indeed an important subject in schools.
McComas states that unfortunately the structure of the U.S. biology curriculum has not changed much since it was established about 100 years ago. He sees that the biggest challenge is to ensure that the content taught is relevant, related to student interests and level of cognitive development, and that enough time is provided for an in-depth study of biological sciences (these would be inquiry based activities). Students who are taking biology classes often walk away with only superficial knowledge, like terms and definitions, they don’t really understand how science itself functions and what special rules apply to the science of biology.
To solve this challenge, McComas suggests a strategy where the basic content of biology would be divided into two blocks. One would focus on natural history in middle school and the other on biological foundations in high school. The natural history block in middle school would be more holistic with its examination of groups of organisms and their place in the environment. This would include an investigation of taxonomic principles, anatomy and physiology in zoology and botany, and an introduction to the science of biology, along with evolution and ecology. At the high school level, students would go into more detail and investigate the biological fundamentals such as cell structure and genetics and a more rigorous examination of evolution and ecology.
The basic idea behind this strategy is to design a curriculum that is relevant, includes the fundamental concepts of biology and provides opportunities for inquiry based learning.
Lastly, it’s extremely important to have highly qualified science teachers, who are 100% qualified and certified to teach the subject. According to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Education (NCES 2005)…” close to 40% of public school students have teachers without a major or minor in the field, 25% have teachers without certification, and 16% have teachers with neither certification nor a major or minor in the field…” (2005, p.3).
I really enjoyed reading this article. Not only did I learn about the importance of biology in high schools, I also learned that students are not getting the most out of their classes. There are changes that need to be made in the instruction and in the curriculum. Instead of just superficially trying to cover EVERYTHING, we (the educators) should design curriculums with students’ interests, cognitive stages, and most importantly the relevance of the subject in mind. I personally feel more informed and better equipped to start planning my lessons. I realize that it’s impossible to cover every single detail. I should just focus on what knowledge is worth knowing and decide how best to teach it. I also strongly agree with McComas that inquiry based instruction should be planned and implemented in classrooms to better engage the students.
“Under the Microscope- Examining the history and current state of biology education.”
The Science Teacher Oct 2007
This article discussed the history of biology and how current biological education was developed and the current flaws of biological education. The article began with some interesting statistics about what science courses, a typical high school graduate completes. In 2000 91% of high school graduates took biology while 62% took chemistry and only 25.1% took biology, chemistry and physics. Biology is very influential, and it is sometimes the only secondary science class a high school graduate will take. Therefore biology may be the only chance teachers get to engage, motivate and foster critical thinking skills that are useful in the field of science.
The history of the biology curriculum as an independent study was developed in 1920. The Committee of Ten of the National Education Association determined that biology should be a free standing study and should come before chemistry and physics. Since the 1920’s the biology curriculum has not been greatly modified even though we know more about the way people learn. In 1920 the committee proposed that 60% of instruction should be inquiry based. However, recent studies show that only 26% of instruction in the biology classroom is inquiry or lab based. It is obvious that there have been very little changes made in the last 100 yrs to improve science instruction in Biology.
Another problem today is that most biology curriculums try to cover too much material. The curriculum is too broad and the text books squeeze in too much information. The article emphasized the importance of a solid text book that covers the important material, not a text book that is so lengthy is would be impossible to cover all the topics. The article suggested splitting the material between the middle level and secondary level grades. Since biology is usually taught twice and the classes cover the same topics it suggested covering taxonomic principles, anatomy and physiology in zoology and botany, and introducing the science of biology along with evolution and ecology at the middle level. At the secondary level students would engage in biological fundamentals, such as cell structure, biochemistry, genetics with a deeper look at evolution and ecology. The article also pointed out the importance of encompassing the history of biology to bring it to a human level for students.
The article covered several important issues in the biology classroom. I agree that the biology now taught at the middle level and secondary level is repetitive. For some students this helps them grasp the material better. However for others the material is only covered on a very basic level and they are unable to move into a deeper understanding. Maybe one way to remedy this problem is to split the curriculum between the middle and secondary level, as suggested in the article. It is obvious that while progress is being made there needs to be more changes. Teachers need to work to try to increase the amount of inquiry they use in their classroom. While school committees and administration should work towards a new way to present the material covered by a typical biological classroom.
McComas, W (2007)Biology Education under the Microscope. The Science teacher. 28-33.
Biology Education under the Microscope
This article by William McComas examines the history and current state of biology education. He begins his article by the following statement “Biology is the most important science subject taught in school!” This statement is actually supported by educational statistics, which show that between the years 1982-2000, the percentage of high school graduates taking biology for a science was the highest, 91.2%. Therefore, biology is indeed an important subject in schools.
McComas states that unfortunately the structure of the U.S. biology curriculum has not changed much since it was established about 100 years ago. He sees that the biggest challenge is to ensure that the content taught is relevant, related to student interests and level of cognitive development, and that enough time is provided for an in-depth study of biological sciences (these would be inquiry based activities). Students who are taking biology classes often walk away with only superficial knowledge, like terms and definitions, they don’t really understand how science itself functions and what special rules apply to the science of biology.
To solve this challenge, McComas suggests a strategy where the basic content of biology would be divided into two blocks. One would focus on natural history in middle school and the other on biological foundations in high school. The natural history block in middle school would be more holistic with its examination of groups of organisms and their place in the environment. This would include an investigation of taxonomic principles, anatomy and physiology in zoology and botany, and an introduction to the science of biology, along with evolution and ecology. At the high school level, students would go into more detail and investigate the biological fundamentals such as cell structure and genetics and a more rigorous examination of evolution and ecology.
The basic idea behind this strategy is to design a curriculum that is relevant, includes the fundamental concepts of biology and provides opportunities for inquiry based learning.
Lastly, it’s extremely important to have highly qualified science teachers, who are 100% qualified and certified to teach the subject. According to a recent study by the U.S. Department of Education (NCES 2005)…” close to 40% of public school students have teachers without a major or minor in the field, 25% have teachers without certification, and 16% have teachers with neither certification nor a major or minor in the field…” (2005, p.3).
I really enjoyed reading this article. Not only did I learn about the importance of biology in high schools, I also learned that students are not getting the most out of their classes. There are changes that need to be made in the instruction and in the curriculum. Instead of just superficially trying to cover EVERYTHING, we (the educators) should design curriculums with students’ interests, cognitive stages, and most importantly the relevance of the subject in mind. I personally feel more informed and better equipped to start planning my lessons. I realize that it’s impossible to cover every single detail. I should just focus on what knowledge is worth knowing and decide how best to teach it. I also strongly agree with McComas that inquiry based instruction should be planned and implemented in classrooms to better engage the students.
“Under the Microscope- Examining the history and current state of biology education.”
The Science Teacher Oct 2007
This article discussed the history of biology and how current biological education was developed and the current flaws of biological education. The article began with some interesting statistics about what science courses, a typical high school graduate completes. In 2000 91% of high school graduates took biology while 62% took chemistry and only 25.1% took biology, chemistry and physics. Biology is very influential, and it is sometimes the only secondary science class a high school graduate will take. Therefore biology may be the only chance teachers get to engage, motivate and foster critical thinking skills that are useful in the field of science.
The history of the biology curriculum as an independent study was developed in 1920. The Committee of Ten of the National Education Association determined that biology should be a free standing study and should come before chemistry and physics. Since the 1920’s the biology curriculum has not been greatly modified even though we know more about the way people learn. In 1920 the committee proposed that 60% of instruction should be inquiry based. However, recent studies show that only 26% of instruction in the biology classroom is inquiry or lab based. It is obvious that there have been very little changes made in the last 100 yrs to improve science instruction in Biology.
Another problem today is that most biology curriculums try to cover too much material. The curriculum is too broad and the text books squeeze in too much information. The article emphasized the importance of a solid text book that covers the important material, not a text book that is so lengthy is would be impossible to cover all the topics. The article suggested splitting the material between the middle level and secondary level grades. Since biology is usually taught twice and the classes cover the same topics it suggested covering taxonomic principles, anatomy and physiology in zoology and botany, and introducing the science of biology along with evolution and ecology at the middle level. At the secondary level students would engage in biological fundamentals, such as cell structure, biochemistry, genetics with a deeper look at evolution and ecology. The article also pointed out the importance of encompassing the history of biology to bring it to a human level for students.
The article covered several important issues in the biology classroom. I agree that the biology now taught at the middle level and secondary level is repetitive. For some students this helps them grasp the material better. However for others the material is only covered on a very basic level and they are unable to move into a deeper understanding. Maybe one way to remedy this problem is to split the curriculum between the middle and secondary level, as suggested in the article. It is obvious that while progress is being made there needs to be more changes. Teachers need to work to try to increase the amount of inquiry they use in their classroom. While school committees and administration should work towards a new way to present the material covered by a typical biological classroom.